Joanna Angel On VR Porn

You Won't Believe What This Adult Film Star Thinks Of VR Porn

The porn industry always seems one step ahead of the curve when it comes to new and experimental technology — and figuring out how to use it to give people orgasms. Whatever your personal choice is in the way you enjoy viewing content, from a laser disk to the newest 4K HD TV, there's a vast variety of porn that will perfectly suit your medium.

Today we entered the world of virtual reality — what we have all nicknamed "VR." The technology is something close to what we would imagine in an episode of the Jetsons. To an old-ish person like me, who grew up making friends in an AOL chat-room, I simply couldn’t believe what was actually happening when I put on that headset. The music industry and Hollywood are still trying to figure out what the hell to do with the technology. Samsung released live VR concert footage of Paul McCartney, and yeah that’s cool — everyone loves Paul McCartney. But do people really feel the need to grab him while he’s playing? Do people truly watch concert footage in 2D and think, “This isn’t enough. I want to be right there with them”?

At the moment, it's simply uncomfortable to view content in VR for an extended period of time. I think twenty minutes tops is about all your eyes and brain can handle at one time. And the technology available for editing VR is minimal at the moment — so that makes any kind of special effects and movie magic impossible to do. So what kind of content is available that requires minimal amounts of editing, gets viewed in very short bursts of time, and makes the viewer want to reach out and grab? Ding, ding, ding. You got it. Really, when you think about it, VR was made for porn — much like the internet itself, according to the popular song from the Broadway smash hit Avenue Q that goes, “The internet is for porn! Why do you think the net was born? Porn! Porn! Porn!”

At the moment I am not personally producing VR porn. I wanted to learn more about it before I ventured into that, so I partnered up with the most successful VR company in the adult industry, Holo Films. I occasionally work as a co-director and performer on their sets sometimes, where I put my own personal flair on their VR setup. It's been challenging and fascinating, and I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the future with this type of content.

I was incredibly surprised the first time I went to set for Hologirls. They had rented a typical porno location — a giant house with a ton of open space and a pool. In porn we always want things to look big, if that makes any sense. Big long strip teases, walking up big flights of twisty stair cases, splashing water or oil or whatever kind of liquid you can find to accentuate big butts and big tits from multiple angles — that’s what the majority of people are going for in porn.

When I first saw Hologirls’ setup, it was a 360-degree metal rig of little Go-Pro looking cameras, set up in the corner of a room. I'm not sure why, but I expected something that looked like the original RED cameras — the big ones, on wheels, that required an operator and an assistant operator. The kind of thing you see photos of Steven Spielberg on. How could this teeny tiny little merry-go-round of cameras deliver us the newest form of technology? It made no sense.

I told the camera operator (who essentially sets up the camera, turns them on and walks away) my different ideas: “Let’s have the guy hiding behind a door and jumping out to surprise the girl," as my idea for some kind of milf birthday surprise-type thing. Don't ask. I really love the idea of hot milfs eating cake with younger guys. But that's a whole other story.

"Well, we can't have a guy hiding anywhere — he's going to be seen from every point of the room."

"OH,” I said, "Well lets start on a closeup of her boobs and then pan out and have him be there."

"No, I'm sorry — the camera doesn't move. We can't do that either. But the girl can stand close to the camera and then walk back as long as she stays within these lines.” He put some lines of tape on the floor about two feet apart from one another. I was shocked.

"You want performers to do a whole sex scene — three or four positions — right here? Between here and here?"

"Yes,” he said. "It doesn't have to be four positions. We can just find one that works!"

I was so baffled. He just violated all the porn laws that I have spent the past 13 years trying to master. He shot the one position scene, with the girl looking directly into the tiniest camera lens of all time .... and the guy basically just laid there the whole time with his head directly under the rig. The guy also happened to be Manuel Ferrara, who is inarguably the best male performer in the industry, capable of putting girls in all sorts of acrobatic positions. To see him just lie there was nails on a chalkboard for a director and producer! I really wanted to see him fuck the shit out of the girl way outside of those lines of tape!

I was worried that what was just shot was going to be the most boring scene ever. However, when I put on the glasses and was shown the footage, I totally got it. It was incredible. You could so clearly hear every decibel of the female performer's heavy breathing, you could grab her boobs, and I could basically reach my hand in and give Manuel a hand-job had I wanted to.

I am 4’11. I usually lie to people and tell them I'm 5-feet tall. It says that on my license because I lied to the woman at the DMV when I first got my license. Either that or she gave me the extra half an inch because she felt sorry for me. It was truly traumatic as as a young girl who was addicted to the thrill of going on roller coasters. I was never "this tall" to make the ride. I'm also incredibly jealous of all girls in the porn industry with long legs. They look so damn pretty getting bent over. My short stubby Jewish legs never look nearly as glamorous in standing doggy.

However, my lack of leg length truly became useful for my first VR scene. I was able to fuck in so many positions without going outside the parallax. Spoon, doggy, cowgirl, reverse cowgirl — even standing, my whole frame fit in there quite nicely. That was all pretty exciting.

In any case, I talked to one of the owners of HoloGirls to ask them what kind of content was doing best and what the fans seem to love is incredibly sweet romantic porn where the girl really feels like they're your girlfriend. Last time I was on set with them they did the first VR "kissing scene" — which is apparently selling like crazy. It was literally a girl sloshing her tongue around a tiny camera lens. It looked completely absurd and while we were shooting it we had to start over multiple times because it just felt ridiculous. But once the headset was on it really felt like you were making out with her. At the moment, extreme gaping anal sex and stuff of that nature is not what the viewers want. In 2D porn we are always trying to create a fantasy; in VR porn, we are creating a reality.

So what's next? Well, in the near future I foresee VR porn going to the next level and becoming AR. Instead of the viewer being transported to the porn set — the performer will be transported to the viewer. You know... like the Pokémon we all catch every day. I just hope that when that day comes I can be your Pikachu and not your Magikarp.